


after it was over

by baggvinshield



Series: Things you said [2]
Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Ficlet, M/M, Post-Episode: s03e13 The Wrath of the Lamb, Post-Season/Series 03, Prompt Fic, Series, Tumblr Memes, hannibal's esoteric bullshit, surprisingly fluffy??, things you said meme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-20
Updated: 2016-02-20
Packaged: 2018-05-21 14:45:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6055453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baggvinshield/pseuds/baggvinshield
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><br/>“Are you familiar with the theories regarding the birth of the universe?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	after it was over

**Author's Note:**

> I took some liberties with what was probably the intended meaning of this prompt.
> 
> Alternatively titled "Symmetry Breaking"

* * *

 

 

“We'll only destroy one another, Hannibal. Zero sum game or not, that's the moment fate will always return us to.”

Hannibal sips his wine and sets the glass down gently. Will can almost hear the cogs turning in his mind, but as is so often the case where Will himself is concerned, he can't quite predict his thoughts. It's as though he knows Hannibal better as the Ripper, as the monster, than as this equally strange incarnation, this man who loves Will.

Hannibal turns and looks at him thoughtfully. “Are you familiar with the theories regarding the birth of the universe?”

Unexpected. “The big bang, you mean?”

“And the creation of matter from light. Particles of matter slung into existence - everything that we are and can see and touch, all made of this primordial stuff - but for each particle of matter, an antimatter mate was made. These opposite and equal pairs began annihilating one another, and had the laws of physics as we understand them held, the universe would have turned out entirely empty, with not a single speck of anything in it, everything that ever was or ever could be utterly destroyed.” He smiles, warm and soft.

“But here we are, so what happened?”

“Mistakes. Some matter formed without its antimatter twin, and was not annihilated, and here we are. Us and the earth and the stars and everything in the entire universe, all here because of mistakes.”

“There's been no such mistake with us though.” Will feels the guilt at his words rise in him. (He thinks he either ought to be surprised that he still feels compassion for Hannibal, or that loving him he still feels reluctant to embrace a life postmortem with him. One or the other emotion ought to prevail.) “We're both here, Hannibal. An annihilating pair.”

“The term they use is ‘symmetry breaking’,” Hannibal goes on as if Will hasn't spoken, his gaze flat across the table. “The law of symmetry was disregarded, and the foundations for life were allowed to survive.” He looks at Will again, eyes dark in the flickering candle light, a predatory sheen. “Are you so sure we're an opposite pair, rather than two of a kind?”

Will swallows thickly. “No,” he answers honestly. “There are times I think I'm sure, one way or the other, but generally I'm… undecided.”

“Then allow me to present a theory, if you would.” The shift in Hannibal's face is so minute Will is sure he would have missed it four years ago. “We are not opposite annihilating beings, but rather, we're the same - antimatter, perhaps, the residue of primordial destruction. If we were destined to destroy one another in a violent burst of light, it would have happened long ago whether we wanted it or not.”

Will knows immediately what Hannibal is giving up in saying this, the ways in which he is exposing a vulnerability. He looks much the same as he did years ago in his dining room, on the night he served lamb and offered Will his free forgiveness and a chance to leave behind the webs of deceit they'd woven for one another. Will had refused then, and could very well betray Hannibal again now, but a moment of clarity offers him a different solution. What Hannibal really means is that he's given up his desire to destroy Will; he's offering this confession without any certainly that Will means the same.

The setting of this dinner could not be more different than the last one they shared together before Hannibal left him, and Hannibal is different - _changed._  And Will knows that he is, too.

“Well,” he says, raising his wine to his lips, “I suppose we could put off any active attempts at annihilation at least long enough to see what our own broken symmetry might lead to.”

Hannibal relaxes visibly, but doesn’t smile yet, which prompts Will to add, “But you have to admit, this shit is pretty esoteric - even for you.”

Hannibal does smile now, fond and forgiving. “Such language at the dinner table Will. Rude,” he says quietly, and Will grins back at him.

 

 

  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Neil Degrasse Tyson and netflix.  
> (I'm using [this prompt meme](http://patrvchlvs.tumblr.com/post/134962771217/send-me-a-ship-and-one-of-these-and-ill-write-a) to break my writer's block.)


End file.
